Which urban growth model describes city expansion in concentric rings around a central business district?

Which urban growth model describes city expansion in concentric rings around a central business district?

• A. Hoyt sector model
• B. Multiple-nuclei model
• C. Burgess concentric model
• D. Central place theory

Answer: (C)

City growth in concentric rings around a central business district is described by the Burgess concentric model. This idea, based on early 20th-century Chicago, imagines the city expanding outward from the CBD in circular zones. The center is the CBD, followed by successive rings such as a transition zone with industry and poorer housing, then working-class housing, then middle-class housing, and finally outer suburban areas. Land values and accessibility drop as you move away from the center, so different uses occupy each ring in a roughly layered pattern. This radial, ringed expansion is what makes the Burgess model the best fit for describing growth in concentric circles around the core. Other models describe different patterns: the sector model envisions growth in wedges radiating from the CBD along transport routes; the multiple-nuclei model posits several centers of activity rather than a single center; Central Place Theory looks at how settlements of different sizes provide goods and services across a region, not the outward ring growth of a single city.

City growth in concentric rings around a central business district is described by the Burgess concentric model. This idea, based on early 20th-century Chicago, imagines the city expanding outward from the CBD in circular zones. The center is the CBD, followed by successive rings such as a transition zone with industry and poorer housing, then working-class housing, then middle-class housing, and finally outer suburban areas. Land values and accessibility drop as you move away from the center, so different uses occupy each ring in a roughly layered pattern. This radial, ringed expansion is what makes the Burgess model the best fit for describing growth in concentric circles around the core.

Other models describe different patterns: the sector model envisions growth in wedges radiating from the CBD along transport routes; the multiple-nuclei model posits several centers of activity rather than a single center; Central Place Theory looks at how settlements of different sizes provide goods and services across a region, not the outward ring growth of a single city.